Sunday, January 23, 2011

Pam's Presence - Minister's Column February 2011

In a bold act of love, we have hung the Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference’s "Standing on the Side of Love" banner outside of our building. The "Standing on the Side of Love" campaign reminds us to act and speak in love and not in fear. It lifts up the need for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual equality as we work toward marriage equality. It lifts up the need to be educated advocates when it comes to immigration legislation.

As this banner hangs outside of our building, I hope we engage in a strong push toward spreading love and justice in Denton. Our Outreach Committee (co-chaired by Rhonda Love (leelove14@msn.com) and Kati Trice (katitrice@gmail.com)) would love to know about your ideas for justice and advocacy work in our community. What are you already doing? What would you like to do? What could a group of us be doing? Are you willing to help others in a one-time project and/or an ongoing effort?

The Outreach Committee has a poster board in Fellowship Hall where you can write what you are doing to stand on the side of love. You can even post a picture of someone in our congregation standing on the side of love.

I personally am committing to volunteer throughout the year at "Our Daily Bread" to serve food to our hungry and homeless Denton residents. Would you like to join me? If so, let me know. I am also hoping that others might join me in helping to create much-needed LGBT resources in our local community. It is an effort I cannot do alone. More long term possibilities include our congregation’s involvement in interfaith peace-making efforts to honor the 10th anniversary of September 11th. I’m also wondering what our congregation can do to honor the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday with as much fervor as the Briggle family brought to their celebration of the holiday this year.